We insist on taking responsibility for current phase: PM

CAIRO – 30 June 2017: After approving a number of decisions regarding the rising fuel prices on Thursday morning, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said in statements that the government is insisting on taking responsibility for this critical phase.
“We won’t hesitate to take new steps to eliminate the past regimes negative decisions, especially the economic ones,” Ismail said.

He added that the current government has a very clear vision on economic reform, “as we trust the Egyptian people’s awareness of the challenges that we have to face” he added.

In the early morning on Thursday, the government issued new decisions on raising fuel prices.The price of 80-octane gasoline soared from LE 1.60 ($0.08) to LE 3.65 per liter, while the 92-octane increased from LE 3.50 to LE 5.00 per liter.

“The new decisions on applying further hikes to fuel prices are designed to redirect state funds to food subsidies”Ismail later said in a press conference.

“The current phase in the economic reform program does not stand any delay in needed decisions,” Ismail said, adding that “total subsidies in the new fiscal year will reach LE 333 billion ($18 billion).”

Ismail said that the government is continuing a strategic plan started earlier in 2014 regarding petroleum products and electricity. He added that the government wanted to lower the amount of subsidies for petroleum products which used to reach about LE 145 billion, “and this is a huge amount of money we need for other subsidies.”

The economic reform program launched by the government aims to end the budget deficit by redirecting fuel subsidies to other products.
The decision was part of the program approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), upon which the international funder endorsed a $12 billion loan to Egypt in August 2016.